Outlines of the course of lectures on military surgery, delivered in the University of Edinburgh / by Sir George Ballingall.

Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of the course of lectures on military surgery, delivered in the University of Edinburgh / by Sir George Ballingall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Mr. Hunter's work above referred to, and his treatise on the venereal disease,another subject peculiarly interesting to themi- litary surgeon, are universally known, and generally esteemed. From the date of Mr. Hunter’s writings, until 1804, no work appeared on the subject of wounds, which claims any au- thority from the personal experience of its author. In this year was published “ Chirurgical Institutes on Gun-shot Wounds,” by St. John Neale, a work which, although the writer alludes to his personal experience during the American war, has never attracted any attention, having been always looked upon as a translation of Le Dran. The conclusion of the war with France, in 1815, gave oc- casion to the appearance of two excellent works on military sur- gery, by Mr. Guthrie and Dr. Hennen. Mr. Guthrie’s work on gun-shot wounds of the extremities, was first published in 1815, and in subsequent editions it has been greatly enlarged and improved, under the title of “ A Treatise on Gun-shot Wounds, on Injuries of Nerves, and on Wounds of the ex- tremities requiring amputation.” Here he enters into the consideration of gun-shot wounds in general, and illustrates his doctrines by a reference to the most extensive experience which perhaps any of his countrymen have ever enjoyed ; the whole, as it now exists, forms a work wThich every one agrees in considering a standard authority upon those points of which it treats. The nature and objects of Dr. Hennen’s work, a third edition of which has recently been published under the title of “ Principles of Military Surgery,” will be best understood from the elegant language of its author. “ At the termination of a series of wars, which, for a large portion of a century, have desolated the finest regions of the Euro- pean world, and drenched their fields in blood, the medical philanthropist will naturally ask, what results have accrued from such ample sources of experience ? What progress has been made in softening the miseries of pain and disease, and
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